One of the fascinating things about people who have had a misattribution memory is the confidence in which they will defend their recollection. Building upon his anecdote about memory researcher Donald Thompson, who was wrongfully accused of a brutal rape due to a misattribution, Daniel Schacter proposes a memory test. Executed like a trained showman, Schacter challenges the audience’s own confidence in a demonstration of mental fallibility. You can follow along at home, and we’d be curious to know how you do.
More from this ongoing series: The Unbearable Lightness of Memory

This program is a part of The Big, the Small, and the Complex, a Series made possible with the support of The Kavli Prize.

Recorded June 2011; Posted August 2011